It’s good to hear confirmation of Yo-Kai Watch‘s eventual western launch, despite having to wait another year. The extra-long wait may have something to do with localization. More so with fellow monster franchise Pokémon, Yo-kai Watch is an especially Japanese series, with many monsters directly referencing Japanese mythology (the word ‘Yo-kai’ is a Japanese word). Not to mention, Yo-Kai Watch takes place in Japan, with characters often wearing Japanese garb and partaking in Japanese customs. Pokémon got through to the west unscathed by comparison because its world is very much fictional.

Consider the western launch of another very Japanese franchise, Doraemon. Having debuted in Japan in 1969, it took until 2014 for it to launch in the west, under heavy localization. Despite the efforts of the localization team, Doraemon barely made a dent here, bombing hard before it could get off the ground. Despite the attempt to disguise Doraemon’s Japanese origins, all the changes made to “Americanize” didn’t matter to its target audience. Instead of embracing Doraemon‘s Japanese style, the American producers were ashamed of it, and altered part of the soul that makes Doraemon so unique.

This is in 2014, where kids potentially have greater access to the internet, a learning tool if ever there was one, than ever before. Don't underestimate a child's ability to absorb another culture like a sponge. After all, we didn't censor My Neighbor Totoro, and that takes place in Japan. The issue seems to lie with anime dubbers and the child focused IP they license: they don't take kids seriously.

Will the same thing happen to Yo-Kai Watch? Well, they did announce that the main character Keita would be renamed Nathan Adams, so they already have one strike against them.

With The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D releasing this Friday, it gives people the chance to discover the most off-beat Zelda adventure of all. Of course, it also gives people the chance to relive the adventure they may have played way back in 2000. I am one of those returning veterans, having first played Majora's Mask on Nintendo 64 in 2001.When I played it for the first time, I was struck by how challenging it was and how moody it was. But another idea came to me at that time. Given the mask mechanic that defines Majora's Mask, this game is a lot like the Digimon franchise.

Zeldamon, Termina Monsters, Zeldamon are the champions

Now, hear me out: these two disparate franchises have more in common in this one game than you realize. In Majora's Mask, Link must solve puzzles and navigate the land of Termina by adopting a series of masks. Three transform Link in absolute ways, giving him the powers of a Deku Scrub, a Goron, and a Zora (all creatures familiar to Zelda lore). Like in Majora's Mask, Digimon also revolves around transformations. The Digimon creatures "Digivolve" back and forth between basic and more powerful forms. Like, Agumon can Digivolve into Greymon, and finally into WarGreymon. Like the numerous masks to collect in Majora's Mask, there are many if not more Digimon that exist in its own franchise. Gotta collect them all, as they say.

Change into Termina Champions to save the Termina world

As I played Majora's Mask for the first time, the concept of these two franchises having overlapping qualities gradually came into fruition. I was and am always a Pokemon fan first and foremost, but I was familiar with the Digimon franchise, so it made it easy to re-define Majora's Mask concepts and characters under a new concept. As every Digimon creature has the -mon suffix, it was easy to graft this onto the game's mask transformations and even Link himself. Suddenly, Link became "Linkmon", as he is endowed with the power to transform via the masks, even if it is given to him by unfortunate circumstance. Now, the Goron Link could be branded "Goronmon", and Zora Link was "Zoramon". Can you say "Bunnymon" to represent the Bunny hood that gives Link greater running speed?

Linkevolve into Champions, Linkevolve into Ultimate

Another important overlap between the two wasn't just the mask/evolution element. Both Digimon and Majora's Mask center around plots to save their respective worlds from immediate danger. Take a look at the first arc of the Digimon anime, or Digimon Adventures. Seven children are summoned by fate to save the Digital World from four Dark Masters who have brought evil to the land. Majora's Mask's story centers around Link falling into the wonderland of Termina, swept into a quest to save Termina from the impending doom of the falling moon. He must defeat four boss creatures to summon the power to stop the moon's devastation.

Even the villainy has an overlap. In Digimon, there were many Digimon that were cursed by Black Gears, controlling the user and turning them to evil deeds. Majora's Mask has its Skull Kid, turned to malice through the tititular mask that unleashes dark magic upon the world. Surely, Nintendo had no interest in following the Bandai-made franchise when making Majora, but the similarities are interesting, to say the least.

Linkmon Linkevolve to...Dekumon!

As many similarities as these two share, they have their differences too. Where Digimon emphasizes teamwork and the efforts of multiple protagonists, Majora's Mask concerns only one hero working on his own to overcome the darkness that plagues the land. And of course, the tone couldn't be more different between them. Digimon is a paragon of optimism compared to Majora's Mask's despair and sadness. But at the end of it all, our heroes leave the worlds they worked to save, as if they were never there at all.

This is all one man's construct, but what are your thoughts on this comparison? Do you agree or contest the idea that Majora's Mask and Digimon have some things in common, and what other similarities/differences do you see between the two?

It was 1999, and kids like me were in the process of becoming full-on Pokemaniacs, some more than others. Back in August that year, my cousin Sam and I were partaking in the summer's week-long LOGOS event at our church, which kids in our family were made to go to. There, he told me stories of an upcoming Pokemon movie, which had Mewtwo in a test tube being created. In my head, that image was disturbing. I pictured a teeny, beaker-style test tube barely containing a fetus-like Psychic type, veins and all. I didn't fully believe his word that a movie was underway. Little did I know that I'd soon be proven happily wrong.

My cousin, who's birthday is only weeks apart from mine, chose to wait that year on his b-day present. The bounty was a movie trip for him and his friends (including me). Late in the day come November 10th, his mom (my aunt) drove a small group of close-minded fanatics to the local Terrace Theater (now long gone, RIP), where a local news crew's van happened to be waiting. When we got our tickets, we went in and stood in line. Apart from some Star Wars nuts, whoever heard of standing in line for a movie? After what felt like an eternity, we shuffled in, found some choice seats, and were enraptured as we witnessed the big screen escapades of Pikachu, Mewtwo, and many others, humans and Pokemon alike.

I remember the audience laughed at Pikachu pratfalls, cheered when Ash Ketchum took a stand, and shed a tear during the solid climax. It was quite an experience.

On this day fifteen years ago, Pokemon: The First Movie was released in theaters across North America, courtesy of Warner Bros. The anime feature, based on a TV series based on a video game, went on to propel Pokemania to new heights, with a $30 million opening week at the box office, a record at the time. It opened on over 3000 screens, a major get for an anime feature. Never before had any anime opened so big in the States. Those TCG cards didn't hurt, either.

In case you forgot, or don't know, how huge this movie was at the time, Warner Bros. once gave away tickets over the phone. What resulted was the company's voice mail system melting because too many calls from eager Poke-fans crashed the system. Several kids called in sick from school that day with a bad case of "Pokemonitis". This was at a time when Pokemon trading cards were routinely banned from schools for being distracting. All this curiosity and media attention surely helped propel the movie to box office success.

Already released in Japan back in July 1998, the first Pokemon movie was given an extensive dub overhaul by 4Kids Productions. All of the original score was replaced and the script was heavily re-written. Upon its release, critics savaged the movie, fluctuating between not "getting it" and decrying the hypocrisy of the story. That is, the dub-added message that all fighting is wrong, in a story where several conflicts are solved through Pokemon battles. Yeah...

As for the movie itself, most every Pokemon fan has seen it at least once. Mewtwo Strikes Back remains arguably the darkest and grittiest movie in the series. If you don't know the story, it's a loose retelling of the origin of Mewtwo, the powerful clone of super-rare Mew. In a cue from Frankenstein, the creation goes on a rampage angry at his human creators. Old time magazine EGM described it as a "Goonies and Enter the Dragon kind of movie". The artwork was atmospheric, the music moody (and at times triumphant-er in the dub), and the story was wise to posit the nature of clones vs. originals and the respect for all life regardless of origin. Mewtwo to this day remains a fascinating Pokemon character, as he wonders the nature of his existence, to wonder if he is the strongest Pokemon or not.

The short Pikachu's Vacation can be best described as a drug trip for fans of the series' main Pokemon (at the time), or a "cheery, dadaist vaudeville" as TIME Magazine did (in that same review, the main feature was brutally savaged). It uniquely had little dialog, resulting in mostly Pokemon speech, which surely drove uninitiated adults at the time to madness. Most notably, it was the anime debut of Gold/Silver Pokemon Snubble and Marril.

Does Pokemon: The First Movie hold up still? If you've seen the Japanese version in the years since, that one will spoil the dub for you. Pokemon movies have since gotten to the point where more people are willing to give them credit. When this movie came out, the external phenomenon of Pokemon, including the merchandise, was discussed in the trades more than the film itself. Thanks to its own merits, Mewtwo Strikes Back holds up as a worthy anime film, and one of the best of the Pokemon movies.

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If you're itching to learn more about Pokemon: The First Movie, there are some excellent sources you should seek out. Dogasu's Backpack, which offers comparisons between the Japanese and English versions of the anime, has a lengthy comparison of 'Mewtwo Strikes Back'. Also check out this fascinating piece by Kubo Masakazu discussing the circumstances behind the movie's localization changes. Plus, this piece will explain why Mewtwo Strikes Back is much better than you think.

I myself took a look at the monumental movie five years earlier, in celebration of its tenth anniversary. Take a look and prepare to feel even older!

And of course, what are your memories of the very first Pokemon movie event? Were you lucky enough to see it in theaters when the fever pitch was at it's fullest? Let all know in the comments.

On September 27th, 2014, Saturday morning television for children (or Sat AM), as it existed for more than 50 years, ceased to exist. The CW finally ended Saban's Vortexx line-up for good. In its place is the educational, "uplifting" entertainment block in the form of One Magnificent Morning.

What, are you surprised? For some people out there, especially baby boomers, this means we have watched the birth, the rise, the fall, and ultimately the death of network-aired Saturday morning programming.

This was bound to happen. Not only has cable television given networks stiff competition for years now, but so has the internet. YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, and more... Kids have way too many options to choose from for their viewing goodness. And considering both the harsh stance the FCC has on non-educational kids television, and how expensive it is for local networks to purchase licensed programming blocks, the death of Saturday morning was a certainty.

From 6 AM to 12 PM, this was a special time if you were a kid growing up. For those general hours, TV belonged to your demographic. If you had a hankering for cartoons, whether they were of poor quality or not, no grown-ups could tell you otherwise (unless they restricted your TV time, of course).

Saturday mornings in their heyday were dominated by a select group of production houses. You had Ruby Spears, Filmation (the only studio to keep all the production in the States), DePaite Freleng Enterprises, DiC, and Rankin Bass. But none ruled Saturday mornings like Hanah-Barbera. The studio formerly behind theatrical shorts had entered television in 1957; it ramped things up in the 1960s and kept growing until the late '80s.

That high number of production studios wasn't for nothing, either. Network television demands programming, and each network tended to seek content from the companies that owned the aforementioned animation studios. To fill air time for multiple seasons, the animation had to be created at an alarming speed, resulting in a production cycle of layoffs and (extreme) cost-cutting. It was famously dubbed, the "assembly line" system.

Morse surprising is how quickly these shows were forgotten as soon as they aired. Few lasted more than a single season. Also damning is how most studios, unlike the theatrical animation houses of the Golden Age in the 1940s and '50s, failed to establish their own identities. When budgets and quality control hit their lowest point, every TV cartoon looked like it was carved from the same schlocky cloth (Gilligan's Planet looked no better than the Mr. T cartoon, no matter what nostalgia tells you).

The 1980s arguably brought the peak of the Staurday morning medium. If you weren't a fan of the insanely low-quality Sat AM crap of the 1970s, then the '80s brought forward more familiar brands and toy-based drivel than you could shake a stick at. Pop culture icons were marketed to kids via cartoons, from live-action sitcoms to toys (oh god, the toys). Watchdog groups got their hands on the matter, and networks began to alter the content of their shows to exclude any form of violence and negative influences on America's children.

Saturday morning began its steady decline in the 1990's. In a chain of destructive events, Filmation died a horrible death in the late '80s, eliminating one of the major production houses of animation. Government intervention greatly influenced the threshold of which networks were willing to air non-educational programming, and cable television continued to grow in power and reach. While several networks did soldier their way into the late '90s and even the 2000's (Warner Bros. and ABC come to mind), Sat AM had seen the writing on the wall. Television was rapidly changing, and Sat AM was being dragged through the change like a limp carcass. Sad to say it but it couldn't keep up the act for another decade.

Some notable Saturday morning line-ups included (in no particular order):

ABC: One of the earlier Saturday morning blocks, ABC's earliest success was the pro-educational School House Rock. The fondly-remembered musical numbers were catchy and informative, with memorable household tunes like Conjunction Junction and I'm Just a Bill. In later years, ABC got purchased by Disney, and with it came a sea change in the programming. Disney sparked their One Saturday Morning line-up in the late 90s, which continued for many years with fondly-remembered shows like Recess, Pepper Ann, House of Mouse, and The Weekenders. Later years included re-broadcasts of Disney Channel originals like Lizzy Maguire and Kim Possible. And by the late 2000s, the company's interest fizzled out, and the Sat am block disappeared for good. Also of note was Disney's syndication package One Two, which re-packaged some of the Saturday shows for weekday mornings.

Notable series: School House Rock, Disney's One Saturday Morning line-up, The Bugs Bunny Show

CBS: CBS carved an identity for itself with some trendsetting shows. They didn't create them, but CBS had a flair for the host show. In 1960, they aired Captain Kangaroo, and in the 1980s, they were the home of Peewee's Playhouse, Paul Rubens' wacky series that struck a rare balance of appealing to both adults and kids, and was critically acclaimed to boot. Also important to the network was The Archie Show from 1968. Running for a decade, The Archie Show was a reaction to the action-superhero landscape of early Sat AM, and was a huge hit for studio Filmation. Without it's pro-social teen comedy slant, we wouldn't have Hanna-Barbera's long-lasting "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?". It also helped that The Archies spun-off a hit single, "Sugar Sugar".

CBS also picked up the rights to Ralph Bakshi's Mighty Mouse (which became marred in flower-sniffing controversy), the animated Muppet Babies, and the super-popular Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. By the late '90s, CBS' Sat AM was a shadow of what it was, with barely any kidvid left, mostly given way to the NFL pre-game and early morning news*.

NBC: Of the Big Three Networks, NBC was the biggest ratings powerhouse, thanks to their reliance on popular brands and netting some really successful series. In the 1980s, NBC's biggest coup was both The Smurfs (often airing for hours at a time), and Disney's Gummi Bears, the first huge success for Disney's TV animation division. Such would lead...to nothing. ABC ended up airing more of Disney's content, but NBC would pioneer Disney's television animation. NBC was one of the first die cast when they got out of Sat AM television in 1992, replacing hours of cartoons with a Saturday edition of Today Show. Now, NBC does currently have NBC Kids on the air (with shows courtesy of Sprout!), but it's not quite the same thing.

Notable series: The Smurfs, Disney's The Adventures of the Gummi Bears, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Jim Henson's Fraggle Rock

Kid's WB!: When Warner Bros. created their own television network in 1995, of course a Saturday morning block for kids was in order. Animaniacs was moved from its former home at Fox Kids to the newest member on the Sat AM block. But producer and friend to Warner Animation Steven Spielberg didn't stop there. He helped exec produce a few more animated TV classics, including the strange and cult-favorite Freakazoid!. For the first few years, Kids WB! belonged to Warner Bros. Animation.

Then in February 1999, Time Warner picked up the television rights to the syndication favorite Pokemon, and it quickly became the centerpiece of which all other shows revolved around. Pokemon's success inspired the inclusion of fellow monster anime Yu-Gi-Oh!, and Kids WB! was cemented for the next half decade. In 2006, both those shows ended their runs on the network, and it became all Warner Animation all the time. However, it was impossible to re-capture the zeitgeist of the 1990s classics, what with no noise made for Tom and Jerry Tales.

In 2008, Kids WB! ended its run, to be replaced by CW4Kids. That in turn was re-branded as Toonzai, and finally replaced with Saban's Vortexx, which ended on September 27, 2014.

Fox Kids (later the Fox Box): For a line-up under the aegis of Fox Broadcasting, take a look at the early line-up and what do you see? Fox Kids was dominated in the early 90s by Warner Bros. Television Animation, with runaway, groundbreaking successes like Tiny Toon Adventures and Batman: The Animated Series. Even Animaniacs premiered on Fox Kids in 1993, a show with a total devotion to Warner Bros. airing on Fox! Also of note in 1993 was the western premier of Power Rangers, giving Fox another major win. Notwithstanding, Fox Kids appeared to be a savvy kids network. However, the creation of Kids WB! would lead to the downfall of Fox Kids. As Power Ranger's popularity waned, and Pokemon rose to dominance on network TV, Fox got the broadcast rights to Bandai's Digimon in 1999. Not enough, however. Fox Kids transformed into Fox Box in 2002, a programming block heavily under the control of 4Kids Entertainment. Finally, in 2008, Fox Broadcasting pulled the plug on all Sat AM blocks for kids, giving that time to local affiliates. That's a sour end to what was once a promising competitor in the kid's TV space.

4Kids TV: 4Kids Entertainment heavily populated their block with shows they had no business dubbing. At least, that's what hardcore anime fans will tell you. The previously mentioned Fox Box transformed into the egocentric 4Kids TV around 2004, and with it came many 4Kids-dubbed or written series. As it turns out, shows like One Piece only aired under 4Kids' rule because the company bought it in a licensing package without having any knowledge of the property. Ouch! If you didn't like 4Kids, then this block wasn't for you. The block eventually migrated to The CW to replace Kids WB! in 2008, and morphed into The CW4Kids. Today, 4Kids no longer exists as a production company, so the few shows they used to own, and now air on Vortexx, will no longer air on television after this week.

And thus, an era of television was gone. But, not forgotten. NBC Kids and PBS may air kid-friendly content on Saturday morning for the foreseeable future, but both blocks are geared towards educational content (especially the latter). Kids today who still turn to television have plenty of cable options, including long-time staples like Nick and Cartoon Network. But this piece isn't about them: it's about you.
What are your favorite Sat AM memories? What shows did you desire to tune into each week on network TV? Leave your precious memories in the comments below.

If you're like me, you love Pokemon. And if you're also like me, you were disappointed in the Pokemon anime's earlier story arc, Best Wishes. Ash's journey around the Pokemon world was smooth sailing for 13 years, but when he and Pikachu set foot in Unova, the show saw a seismic shift in the pursuit of shaking things up. While the show's creators should be commended for taking chances, many of the changes made weren't all that popular.

Thankfully, the newer XY arc has thus far proven much more enjoyable. The characters are likable, the tone is in line with the show as we know it, and it's funnier than Best Wishes was. I've written about the pitfalls of that arc before, now let's look at how it's mistakes were atoned for . Seeing as it's been half a year since it's October 2013 premier in Japan, and the 17th movie is about to open there, it's time to review what has worked in XY to rectify the problems with the Best Wishes arc.

Warning: The following may make your head explode unless you're a Pokemaniac of the highest order.

The Main Cast is Imminently Likable: For many Pokemon fans, not much will top the original trio of protagonists, Ash, Brock, and Misty. However, it's fair to say that everyone will top the Best Wishes stars Cilan and Iris. They aren't the worst characters ever, but... It always felt like Cilan and Iris looked down their noses at Ash, never feeling like equals or respecting him all that much. Iris was especially guilty of this, as she was constantly mean to Ash ("What a kid!")

XY has given us three new co-stars in the form of Clemont, Bonnie, and Serena. Aside from being horrendously miscast in the dub, they are immensely better characters for Ash to play off of than Iris and Cilan. Serena is a polite girl, who may harbor a crush on Ash, Clemont is a spry inventor who can't stand being tied down, and Bonnie, his little sister, provides the youngest viewpoint in the group. This team is a positive, happier force together, and they help make the XY arc a lot of fun.

Team Rocket is Back to Normal: One of the biggest, biggest complaints about the majority of Best Wishes is what happened to fan favorite villains Team Rocket: Jessie, James, and Meowth. For some reason, the trio was turned ultra-serious for the start of the previous arc, and retained little to none of the humor or humanity from 13 years prior. The excuse by series executive director Kunihiko Yuyama was that the creative team wanted to rely less on Team Rocket. Well, the decision ended up playing really poorly for many fans, and the absence of Team Rocket as we once knew them made Best Wishes more of a slog.

Thankfully, the team who makes the anime seems to have learned a hard lesson. Though they really started to come back towards the end of Best Wishes, the XY arc has Team Rocket staying in character the whole way, humorous and tenacious in their thievery. Further symbolic of this form, Jessie's Wobbuffet is back on the team, after an entire absence in Best Wishes. They sadly aren't in every episode still, as with Best Wishes, but this Team Rocket is much more in line with who fans knew for 13 years prior to BW. Turns out you need the balance of Team Rocket's never-say-die attitude and the goody-good heroes; the good guys can't make the show work alone.

The Humor is Better: Opinion time: if something else defined Best Wishes from previous arcs in the series, it was a lack of consistent humor. Coupled with the lack of (funny) Team Rocket and some other internal reason, the Best Wishes arc was never all that funny. The consistent joking and gentle ribbing Pokemon liked to do (especially in the more Japan-centric early years) was pushed aside for Pokemon battle after battle.

XY hopes to change that. With a stellar main cast, and the return of Team Rocket as we knew them, the show's sense of humor is back in stride. With it marks the return of running gags, such as Clemont's scientific inventions blowing up, Team Rocket's lovely play acting, and more slapstick. Bottom line: everything's better when Team Rocket is around.

Improved Animation / Art Style: Best Wishes looked off from where Pokemon was in Diamond & Pearl arcs and beyond. It looked too chunky, too bright, and the radical redesigns of characters like Ash was rather off-putting. Suddenly, Ash's newly enlarged eyes made him look stoned, every building was lime green or pink, and the clouds looked like cotton candy.

The XY arc brings about the biggest improvements in animation quality since Advance Generation in 2002. The character movement is smoother and more nuanced, the battles are more exciting, and the colors don't blind you as before in BW. Look no further than in the two-part opener of XY for proof. The enhanced visuals of those two episodes beat the snot out of Best Wishes' art style and set a good impression for the ride to come.

Storytelling hasn't Dropped the Ball: Early on in Best Wishes, fans know there was a deep, dark subplot about a meteorite set up for a great payoff. Team Rocket was trying to unlock it's secrets, and when it's power was awakened, there was to be a big showdown between the Rockets and Team Plasma. As fans know, the 2011 tsunami in Japan caused the two-part showdown to be postponed, and ultimately retconned from continuity. Without resolution to the meteorite, many gaping plot holes were left unanswered (like what happened to all the Rocket members in Unova?)

The XY arc solved this issue by...not trying as hard. This arc hasn't set up any major storyline (yet), and all but one episode has made it to air. The one skipped episode, done so because of the ferry sinking off of South Korea, was a filler which won't hurt the show's continuity. XY, without a pesky meteorite, has stuck to classic Pokemon formula.

Less is More: Another issue with Best Wishes? Too many rivals, not enough interest. It felt like everyone in BW had multiple rivals, such as Trip, Stephan, Cabernet, Georgia, Luke, Bianca, ect... Only so many of them weren't very interesting. Not like the rivals in past arcs like Diamond & Pearl and Advanced Generation.

So far, XY has not given the characters recurring rivals, only characters-of-the-day. Though those same characters aren't bad by any means (although the two trainers from the Battle Chateau look stoned out of their minds), it'd be nice to travel through Kalos without having a bajillion rivals to juggle around. Yet...

It Celebrates Pokemon From Every Generation: Pokemon Black and White versions start off with only 156 new Pokemon, correct. That meant no older Pokemon could be spotted in the games until after the credits rolled. The Best Wishes arc followed suit and ignored all the previous Pokemon, save for Pikachu and Meowth, for a long time. Outside of brief cameos, older Pokemon didn't start creeping back into the show until the Season 2 arc started in summer 2012 (Japan).

The problem is, there was another game where players only had new Pokemon to contend with: Ruby and Sapphire, from 2002. And yet, the Advance Generation arc didn't exclude older Pokemon. On the contrary, you saw lots of older Pokemon you couldn't even catch in Hoenn in early episodes (what's a Typhlosion and Feraligatr doing in Rustboro City?)

The XY arc, and Pokemon X and Y, exude a lesson well learned: don't exclude all your other Pokemon. You want to include Pokemon of every generation because it feels like one big universe, and to not alienate long-time fans. The XY arc happily features old and new sixth gen Pokemon mingling together, in stark contrast to the first half of Best Wishes. The Pokemon universe should be singular and connected, not operating in a vacuum, and now old favorites won't get left behind.

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What is the lesson learned from Pokemon: Best Wishes? Stay true to your show. From nearly a year on the air, the XY arc seems to have done just that. Best Wishes still did everything you'd expect from Pokemon, it just felt...off. The XY arc generally gives off the vibe of "everything's happy"; a return to form, you might say. Whether you still watch the show or not, you can't deny that XY more than makes up for the Best Wishes saga.